Find the Person Who is Most Similar/Different to You: Freer Practice Activity

(TESOL Ideas-- Any Grammar Point)

Students are given a topic, and encouraged to speak about it at length.  The topic should be one which encourages the use of the target language (e.g. past simple “Talk about everything you did yesterday”, going to future “Talk about your plans for this weekend”, present simple “talk about your daily routine”, second conditional “talk about everything you would do if you had a million dollars” etc.  Students typically require some planning time to prepare before they are ready to produce, so give them a couple minutes to think about it. 
Then, students have to go around the class, and listen to as many people as they can.  They must try to find one person in the class who is the most similar to them, and one person in the class who is the most different to them.
This can also be done as a writing activity.  In this case, post the student writing around the room, and each student will go around and read the writings to try to find who is similar to them and who is different.
Variation: Find the Lie
This is similar to the above activity, but in this case each student is encouraged to slip one lie into their talk.  As they walk around the other room talking to other students, the other students have to try to guess what the lie is.  (Note: This is similar to the semi-controlled activity  “2 truths and 1 lie” game, but in this case it is freer practice because it is taking place at the extended discourse level--i.e. instead of just giving 3 unconnected sentences about what they did yesterday, a student is telling the whole story about everything they did yesterday.)